Western Women Go the Distance

Today was long walk day. Goal: 30k. About 18.6 miles.

I did it!

This kind of training is called Long Slow Distance, and its what it says — the idea is to keep a very moderate pace, and go for a looooong time. I’ve learned from past experience that I suck at “slow,” so I use a heart rate monitor with an alarm set to ring whenever my heart rate climbs above 75% of max. The first time I did my long walk this way, I learned some goofy things about myself. For example, I unconsciously increased my pace every time somebody passed me. Well, that must be a good thing, you say, after all, aren’t you some kind of competitive athlete?? The “goofy” part is that this happened even when the folks passing me were *bicyclists*. Or rollerbladers. Or runners. Another interesting note is that I speed up to the Talking Heads, no matter what the song. Ditto for the B-52s. I’m considering really reworking my workout playlist for long walks…

My plan for today was to do the weekly walk with my local racewalk club. That would give me about 5 of my miles completed. Then, I’d jump in my car, and switch to a nearby bike path for the rest on my own. The club walk starts at 8, but I really was dragging about getting out of bed. By the time I got out the door, I was running about half an hour late. So I was surprised when I got to the track and nobody was there. It was raining, so I figured it was remotely possible folks had stayed home, but really this was unlikely — this is the Pacific Northwest, and we don’t not do things because of rain — with that approach not a whole lot would ever get done, for 8 months of each year. Finally, a bit later, a few other club folks came onto the track. It wasn’t till awhile later that someone mentioned turning our clocks back. Oops. I’d spent all that time thinking I was late, but I was the early bird! This is not a role I’m accustomed to, so I’m really enjoying knowing I was first. If its possible for *me* to be early to a morning event, well, it kind of seems like just about anything’s possible. Me finishing the 50k?

Club walks on the track are great, because you can spend some time doing a few laps with different people, so you get to talk and catch up alot. A couple of the guys teased me because I was going so slow, but I didn’t let myself get sucked in. “Long Slow Day” I told them. “Training for the 50k.” They passed me and various comments floated back to me: “Oh, ick!” “What are you, crazy?” “Stop your talking and start walking.” The great thing about this way we tease each other, is that it usually makes me laugh, or at least smile, and either of those things go really, really, well with Long Slow Distance.

As the club walk wound down, I hopped in my car and headed out. Crossing a bridge, I noticed a wall-like end to the clouds overhead, not very far north, with a clear blue sky past the edge. Seemed the rain was just about over.

I did the remaining miles on a mixed use bike trail that runs between a river and a nature preserve. Lots of fall foliage colors, geese, other birds, a couple of kayakers. The trail is pretty heavily used on weekends, mostly bicylists and joggers. Today I saw someone doing that off season cross-country thing — inline skates with ski poles. Plus the usual mix of racing bikes, commuter bikes, bikes with kiddie carts in back, recumbent bikes, and one bicycle for two. I did my first 5 miles in a fleece jacket and warmups, and just as I finished the wall of clouds moved south and the sun came out. So I peeled those off back at the car, and did the rest in my shorts and shirt. On LSD days I do loops from my car, because I don’t carry any water with me. So about once an hour I do a pitstop, fill up with water, gels, sports drink, whatever. Today’s location had the added bonus that there’s a bathroom just off the parking lot. Running water and everything — very civilized. I tried something new — Cliff Shot Bloks. An alternative to gels, they’re a bit denser than a jello cube, and 3 cubes gives the same calories as one gel. (IMHO they missed the boat on the name — Cliff Cubes was the way to go.) I *loved* the cubes. I’ve certainly never said that about gels. I use gels, but its more a feeling of “stop whining and eat the gel” than anything resembling my usual exuberance for food.

What do I do *after* walking? On long slow days, anything that takes my mind off how I feel, and doesn’t involve any kind of movement. With an exemption for anything that involves eating, because I end up feeling hungry about every two hours for the rest of the day. Napping is a nearly optimal post-long walk activity. Speaking of which…

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 29th, 2006 at 3:55 pm and is filed under regular. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.